Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part One

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Science
• Developmental Biology
• Synthetic Biology
• Cognitive Science
• Bioengineering

Background:

• Classical teleology in life sciences faces challenges in explaining complex biological systems.
• Emerging field-diverse intelligence seeks commonalities among active agents across compositions and origins.
• Current biological approaches often minimize goal-directedness, hindering novel research and applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To defend a new approach to goal-directedness emphasizing empirical testability and discovery.
• To integrate mentalistic concepts (intelligence, cognition, intentionality) into biological frameworks.
• To provide a model for understanding and controlling living systems toward new functions.

Main Methods:

• Review of historical and contemporary debates on teleology in biology.
• Analysis of experimental results from morphogenesis and synthetic biology involving bioelectric networks.
• Development of a mentalistic framework for operationalizing teleological and cognitive claims as hypotheses of optimal interaction protocols.

Main Results:

• Experimental results from cellular behavior coordination via bioelectric networks challenge current reductionistic approaches.
• A new approach, informed by mentalistic concepts, offers a more fruitful framework for understanding and controlling living systems.
• The proposed framework emphasizes continuity from unicellular origins to complex cognition, requiring models of cognition scaling.

Conclusions:

• Abandoning reductionistic aversion to mentalistic concepts in biology is crucial for scientific advancement.
• A principled, testable framework for diverse minds can advance philosophical thought and biomedical/bioengineering applications.
• Understanding the plasticity and problem-solving competency of life's material is key to novel research and practical applications.